The ADP has been engaging countries in regional workshops dedicated to developing data dissemination policies. In 2014, several such regional workshops were undertaken. This is the first to focus specifically on developing coherent microdata dissemination policies in Asia. The workshop was held in Manila from 15-17 December 2014 and focused on the development of microdata dissemination policies within the context of their statistics laws. The discussions were structured around three interrelated topics (1) the legal mandate for microdata dissemination, (2) the users’ perspectives on microdata use, and (3) the producers’ viewpoint on microdata dissemination.

The workshop included participants from statistics offices from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Philippines and Vietnam. In addition countries were also represented by personnel from the various user agencies. As four of the five countries are members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a representative from ASEAN also attended and provided background on the efforts on data dissemination was given by the ASEAN Secretariat. Cambodia then shared their experience in the formulation of microdata dissemination policies.

The users’ perspectives came from the different sectors. One such organization, Mekong Economics which is based in Hanoi, provided a summary of their data needs as private researchers. The government users were represented by the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute of Lao PDR, the Secretariat of the State Parliament of Mongolia, and the Philippine Institute of Development Studies. The Asian Development Bank and the World Bank provided insights from the international community.

The workshop culminated with Lao PDR, Mongolia, Philippines and Vietnam presenting their draft outline and considerations for their microdata dissemination policies. Lao and Philippines will be coming out with a complete data dissemination policy where microdata dissemination will have a separate section.